nhlJune 4, 2016 4:17pm EDTJune 2, 2016 4:00pm EDTFavored to win the Stanley Cup in six games, the Sharks come home down 2-0 to the Penguins. Here's what to watch in Saturday's Game 3. (Hint: Sharks must win.)

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Given the prevalence of "Sharks in six" predictions a week ago, the fact that the Stanley Cup Final is heading to San Jose with the home team down 2-0 qualifies as a surprise.

We've been over this a fair bit — trying to guess at the outcome of hockey games in a short series is something of a fool's errand. There are plenty of quantitave ways that help you to take your best shot, but bounces are bounces. The Sharks were a couple crossbars away from leaving Pittsburgh 1-1, despite getting worked over for the vast majority of Game 2. That'd change the narrative a bit, yeah?

In any case, the current two-day break gives us some time to look back on the first two games and look ahead to however many are left. These are some things to pay attention to once Saturday rolls around.

Crosby vs. Couture

Sidney Crosby won a face off in overtime of Game 2, and it directly led to San Jose's loss. Afterward, Logan Couture was salty. Crosby cheats, he said, and because Crosby is Crosby, he gets away with it.

"He times them and they don't kick him out for some reason, probably because of who he is."

A few more things about that: Crosby is winning 65 percent of his draws overall, which is a high enough percentage to have tangible results. Faceoffs lead to fewer goals than people seem to assume, but winning big ones at the right times ... well, you saw what that can do on Wednesday.

Beyond that, every guy who's great at faceoffs cheats a little. Talk to any of them, and they'll tell you that. And beyond that, Crosby didn't cheat on the game-deciding draw, according to ex-NHL ref Kerry Fraser.

Couture's reaction is indicative in two ways; if he weren't frustrated, he wouldn't have said it. And now, even though he was wrong, more attention will be paid to faceoffs than in any Cup Final in recent memory. Crosby will get tossed from the circle a couple times in Game 3. Book it.

Whither the HBK Line?

When you score goals, everything is fine — and that's what Pittsburgh's Carl Hagelin-Nick Bonino-Phil Kessel group managed last night. On that level, all is well for the HBK line.

Still, they got worked over for much of the game from a possession standpoint. They were on for seven Pittsburgh shot attempts and 15 by San Jose, were out there for the Sharks' tying goal late in the third period, and had enough trouble exiting their zone in overtime that Mike Sullivan was forced to use his timeout.

Everyone has off nights, and Game 2 certainly could've been one for HBK, but Pittsburgh's most point-productive line either needs to give more, or the other three groups need to keep picking up the slack in case the goals stop coming. That's what happened on Wednesday night.

The ratings game

In a Thursday morning media release, NBC focused on the positive. The 27.5 rating Game 2 got in Pittsburgh was the best ever for an NBCSN game, and the 5.6 in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland market was the second-best.

The best it could do nationally, though, was leaning on the 1.89 overall rating as one that "surpassed both NBCSN games during the 2012 NJ/LA series, which was the last Final to feature two non-Original Six teams.”

That's a major reach, with some added Original Six-fetishizing for good measure. The issues remain the same — hockey is a small national draw, and the Bay Area market doesn't care enough to pick up the slack. It's nothing new, and nothing that should concern any fans, really, but it'll be fun to watch the P.R. spin down the stretch,

San Jose's third pair

At the start of the series, conventional wisdom was that San Jose's superior defensive depth gave them an edge. That's not wrong, because Paul Martin-Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Justin Braun are both better pairings than any of Pittsburgh's.

It also didn't adequately account for how much trouble the third pair, Brenden Dillon and Roman Polak, have gotten into so far. In Game 2, no Sharks defenseman was on the wrong side of the puck more often than Dillon (minus-10 in shot attempts), and Polak (minus-six) was directly responsible for Pittsburgh's second goal.

First, Polak, faced with forechecking pressure from Hagelin, made a poor pass attempt to Dillon that Bonino picked off. Then, with Bonino sliding the puck toward the goal, Polak dove for it and only delivered it directly to Kessel.

This is where Pittsburgh forward depth is causing problems; the HBK line had an off night, like we went over before, but they're certainly capable of beating Dillon and Polak on the regular. If Peter DeBoer, now with last change, opts to send them out more often against Pittsburgh's fourth line, fine, but that puts a whole bunch of responsibility in the lap of the other two pairings.

Rookies take turns

Is it Tom Kuhnhackl's turn?

Kuhnhackl is Pittsburgh's third rookie forward, and the only one who isn't playing with an all-world center. Not coincidentally, he's the only one of the three without a goal in this series; Conor Sheary has two, including the game-winner on Wednesday, and Bryan Rust was again a factor despite missing a practice after Patrick Marleau hit him in the head.

Sheary copped to being overly deferrent to Crosby when they first played together. No longer.

"At this point (Crosby is) just my teammate and he's my line mate," he said after the game. "I'm comfortable playing with him."

This is what Pittsburgh had missed all those years; young, cheap fast players who are capable of playing with stars. Rust and Sheary have been enormous factors so far; maybe Sullivan should throw Kuhnhackl out there with one of the big guys on Saturday and see what happens.

Shark shuffle

After another two periods of Pittsburgh possession dominance, DeBoer decided to slide Patrick Marleau off Couture's line and on with Chris Tierney. Joel Ward replaced Marleau with Couture.

It paid off; everything looked a lot better for San Jose in that period, and it seems like something DeBoer should stick with moving forward. Pittsburgh's depth makes having a third line consistently on the wrong side of the puck a non-starter, and that's what was happening with the Marleau-less Tierney line.

Then, throw in the fact that Ward legitimately looks like a different player in every postseason, and pairing him with Couture makes even more sense. DeBoer can't rely too much on his stars; Joe Pavelski, Couture and Joe Thornton have gotten them here, but the Sharks also missed teams with secondary scoring like Pittsburgh's.

Game 3 needs to bring Thornton's full descent into Angry Dad mode. It's fun to watch, as long he's not hurting anybody, and it'd be great to see what the reaction would be if it happened. Is he too passionate? Too fiery? Imagine that.

Official ruling

Getting all that worked up over playoff officiating is pointless; this is how the league wants to call the games, and it's not going to change.

But still, for as fast and aesthetically pleasing as both teams play, Game 2 featured a whoooole lot of non-calls and two non-mandatory trips to the penalty box, total. Both sides were getting into it, with the best of the bunch coming when Brenden Dillon sent Conor Sheary into the orbit along the boards a full second before the puck reached him.

It wasn't called, as is the case in virtually all situations, and it's not adversely affecting the pace of play, but man, they are letting everyone get away with everything. The Sharks are worse off because of that; their power play gives them an obvious advantage. Do they get more than one shot in Game 3? Probably not, but it's worth watching for.